


Scars

by EtherealElfling



Category: Naruto
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Blood and Injury, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jealous Tsunade, Lee has ptsd, Light Angst, Mental Health Issues, Minor Injuries, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rock Lee doesn’t know how to deal with mental health, Rock Lee needs a hug, Scratching, Self-Harm, The Lads go to therapy, Therapy, implied Jiraiya/Tsunade, light Jiraiya/Tsunade, minor shenanigans, soft fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29256438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtherealElfling/pseuds/EtherealElfling
Summary: Rock Lee finds himself scratching at his scars. Somebody notices.AKA: Rock Lee and two legendary sanin go to therapy!
Relationships: Jiraiya/Tsunade (Naruto)
Kudos: 17





	Scars

**Author's Note:**

> This is a bit personal for me, I have a form of OCD that has me picking at my skin. I don’t consider it a form of self harm, but I know it can be triggering nonetheless, so minor warning on that. Lee does scratch himself hard enough to draw blood.
> 
> Anyway, he needs more soft hugs in his life nonetheless!
> 
> :D  
> ~EthEl

It happens every once in a while when Rock Lee is unwrapping his bandages. He'll be thinking too much, or too little and before he can blink, he's bleeding. 

He's never told anyone, it's not like it's an issue. It's just minor scratches, and he treats them afterward. 

Well, not right afterward because sometimes he can't look away from the trickle of blood, getting smaller and smaller as it gets caught in the pockets and divots of his marred skin. It's hard to look away.

He occasionally wonders if the blood would streak differently on his right hand, but never seems to find himself scratching at the uninjured hand. His nails always inevitably find their way to his left hand, unconsciously avoiding the surgery scars. 

Those do not bother him. 

It's the pitted skin that he finds himself gouging at, desperate to dig out the grains of sand he swears are still buried deep in the scarred skin. He picks at the imperfections, tearing up the already permanently damaged skin, a part of him hoping that this time it'll heal over smooth, like it used to be. He drags his fingertips through the divots, not even flinching at the sting of flesh scraping open wounds. That pain is nothing for a seasoned nin like him, (especially for this arm in particular—nerve damage and all that) even if he is only a chunin. 

He can't tell if he presses bloodied fingers deep because he is searching for the long-gone sand that did this too him, or if it to feel the smoother lower layers of skin below the marred surface he pulled away. 

He washes all that away in the sink before he can think about it too long. It wouldn't be good if he thought about it too long. 

~~~

It's while he's training with his old squad that everything unravels. He's sparring with Tenten while Neji and Guy spar across the clearing. They'd booked the training ground for the morning to catch up and spar together for old times sake. There is even a promise of a home-cooked meal from Guy mentioned briefly; Lee is looking forward to that in particular. 

Tenten is opening scroll after scroll to launch her various weapons at Lee (his favorite one is definitely the battle axe. It was new, and it almost makes him laugh as he ducks to avoid it. It goes spinning over his head to decimate the tree behind him), and one of the kunai come just a bit too close, slicing past his left arm. 

The sting is easily dismissible as a graze and Tenten doesn't use poison on her blades, so his mind skips over the brief contact in the way battle-hardened nin must in order to survive each second in a fight for one's life.

Only moments later, he feels his something brush against his leg and he dodges away on instinct.   
When it happens again, the same spot, he takes a half second to glance down. His wrappings of his left arm are unfurled and whipping around in the wind of his lightning-fast evasions. 

He can't think of a quick way to rewrap them, so he ignores it for the moment, content to finish the match against his friend. He backflips away from a—broadsword? Just as it carves into the dirt between his legs. 

"Sorry, Lee! Do you need a sec?" Tenten hesitates, mid scroll unfurling. 

"I do not. This could happen in any battle and I must get used to the inconvenience, my friend! Let us proceed!" Lee gives her a dazzling smile with the proper accompanying thumbs up. 

Tenten rolls her eyes affectionately and finishes unrolling the next scroll. 

"Very good, Neji!" Guy booms from somewhere to Lee's left. The sounds of a fast-paced hand-to-hand echo their way across the open space and Lee bounds forward to engage Tenten in close quarters, suddenly eager to help his friend improve her close range skills. 

He's forced back again by another handful of kunai and then a round of shuriken. 

It is several minutes more of ducking and dodging around before Tenten suddenly stops. Lee dives forward at the opening without a second thought, but when Tenten doesn't move to dodge his kick, he twists away at the last second. 

She's staring at him. 

"What is it, Tenten? Did our match end? Did I defeat you?" He beams, stuffing down burgeoning confusion. 

She's just staring at him. 

Lee scuffs his toes in the dirt as she just stares a bit harder, a wrinkle forming on her brow. "...I didn't hit you. I know I didn't hit you. I haven't been able to hit you in years with any of my basic attacks." She's staring at his left arm. The one currently being gripped in his right hand. 

No. Not gripped, gouged. Lee snatches his fingers away, the nail beds an incriminating red.  
Lee's brain stalls. How is he supposed to explain this? "Ah, yes...this just...happens sometimes." 

Tenten narrows her eyes. Lee stuttering. Lee doesn't stutter. "Guy Sensei! Can you come here a moment please?"

"No! Wait, Tenten—!" Lee tucks his arms behind him at a simple parade rest as their ex-sensei pauses his spar and jogs over.

No. Okay. This is fine. He just has to wrap his arm back up before Guy sees. 

Lee half-turns away and starts quickly re-wrapping his arm. He makes an effort to keep panic off his face; he can practically feel Tenten's stare boring holes in the side of his head. 

She had cut through too cleanly. None of the dangling pieces of the wrap are long enough to pull around and pin in place. They are all neatly the same length, held in place on his arm through sheer habit of clinging to his skin. If he tugged any harder the entire thing would unravel. 

No. No no no. They can't see his arms like this. Lee's fingers twitch toward the open wounds before he clenches his fist and pulls himself back into parade rest, arms tucked away once more. 

The hole in the side of his head gets a little bigger. "Lee..."

"Tenten! Lee! How can I serve you today, my beloved ex-pupils?" And Guy is there just a second too late to see anything incriminating and several minutes too early for Lee to do anything but stall for time. 

Tenten is like a dog with a bone on good days. So Lee jumps in before she can speak. "'Ex-pupils?' Guy-sensei! I'll always be one of your pupils!" Lee proclaims a bit too loudly. 

"Yes, yes. We all know that," Tenten cuts in dryly, effectively silencing what could have been a rather heartfelt bonding moment between himself and Guy. "What we would like to know is why you seem so determined to hide your bleeding arm from us." The way she says it, Lee can't tell if "bleeding" is a cuss word or a description. It's Tenten, so...probably both,

"Lee—?" Guy sidesteps to look behind Lee, where his arms still rest. 

Lee mirrors the movement with another too-bright smile. "It is nothing, Tenten. We did not need to bother Guy-sensei and interrupt his training with this. A minor scratch is nothing to fuss about!"

Guy frowns. He and Tenten exchange a glance.

Lee's instincts go absolutely nuts and he's moving before he can even think.

Guy and Tenten lunge for him at the same time, but Lee is already ten feet away. 

"Lee! Get back here!" Guy commands. 

Too bad that voice stopped working on Lee after he passed the Chunins.

"I told you, everything is totally fine! You are making this a bigger deal than it is. Please drop it, both of you." His voice drops into a more serious tone and for a moment, Guy actually hesitates. 

Lee still has to dodge Tenten though, skidding to the right to evade some kind of capture object—rope? Cloth?

Lee dodges it again, before deciding it doesn't matter as long as it doesn't touch him. 

He's keeping an eye out for Guy, who seems to be gearing up to start in on Lee again, as he dodges a third time. 

Something strikes the back of his knees and he crumples in surprise. 

"Neji!" Lee feels betrayed.

"Thank you, Neji! You're the best!" Tenten has the capture rope around him in seconds, leaving both arms conspicuously free. 

"Lee, cut it out. We're obviously worried about this." Neji's voice is cold, but his words shock Lee into pausing his plucking at the ropes. 

Anger, fueled by embarrassment, flashes through him. "This is none of your business, any of you!" His brain registers Guy's hurt look and Tenten's grim one before he plows forward. "It is my arm and I'm handling, so just leave it be!"

Nobody moves for a minute.

Chest heaving, Lee tries to blink back the sudden burn of tears. 

What would they think of him if they knew that he did this to himself?

Guy moves first, edging forward. Lee flinches back, cradling his left arm in his right, hunching further over it to hide it from view. 

"Please, Guy-sensei. Just leave it." His voice is so small.

An iron grip clamps down on his left wrist, stinging the open wounds there. Before Lee can think to thrash away, Guy puts a gentle hand on his shoulder and speaks without turning around. 

"Neji. Tenten. Leave us."

Lee's eyes flicker up to catch a protest forming in Tenten's mouth, but Neji grabs her by the elbow and drags her from the training grounds without a sound. 

Relief sags Lee's shoulders. 

"Lee. Let me see." His voice is unnervingly soft.  
Lee tugs his arm closer to his body, but is stopped by the unmoving grip on his wrist. The bones shift in his wrist as Guy tightens his grip. 

Lee winces. "It is nothing, sensei. Tenten just nicked me with a kunai."

Without having to look up, Lee knows that Guy doesn't buy it. 

Voice still soft, Guy says, "if that were true, you would not have run from us. The truth now, Lee."

Tears begin to drip off of Lee's chin to splash against both of their arms and Lee releases his left arm, allowing Guy to pull it away from where it is tucked up against Lee's chest. 

Even with tears blurring Lee's vision, he can see the smears of blood on his own green jumpsuit. He can see the blood working it's way down Guy's smooth wrist. He was right, it does look different on undamaged skin. 

The thought makes him feel a bit ill and he averts his eyes. 

He allows Guy to turn his arm up, revealing his bloodied forearm. 

"Not a kunai." Guy mutters you himself and Lee squeezes his eyes shut, hunching further in on himself. 

Quicker than a flash, Guy grabs Lee's right hand. Lee clenches it into a fist, tucking his nails out of sight. 

"Lee..." it's a warning. 

Taking a steadying breath, Lee slowly uncurls his fingers. 

"I thought so." Guy runs his thumb over a bloodied index. 

"Guy-sensei..." Lee doesn't know what he's asking. 

Please drop it? Please forgive me? Please don't think any less of me?

"Lee, I am taking you to Lady Tsunade. We need to talk about this. You should not be hurting yourself."

Lee snatches his hands back. "No! It is nothing like that! I would never hurt myself! It is just...sometimes I can still feel the grains under my skin and I just need them out." 

His voice cracks and Guy's arms are around him in an instant. 

"Lee. Lee. Trauma is nothing to be ashamed of. You almost lost your arm, leg and all your dreams in one moment. No amount of surgery can heal the scars that put on you mentally."

"But I am a Chunin of the Leaf! I am strong! My former injuries should not affect me so!" Lee cries out. 

Guy pulls away and grips Lee's shoulders. "Look at me. Lee. Look at me." He waits until Lee to make eye contact. "That is an unhealthy way of thinking. If you break an arm, you put it in a cast and rest it. If you sustain mental trauma, you go to a counselor and talk about it.

"I've always taught you to take care of your body. What excuse can you give me to not care for your mind?" 

Lee bursts into tears and crumples into Guy's waiting arms.

Guy holds him tight for a long moment before rising to guide them toward Hokage tower. 

He walks close to Lee's left side, blocking Lee's arm from any potential prying eyes as they make their way across the village. 

By the time they make it to the Hokage's office, Lee is actively fighting the urge to dig at his arm. Guy knocks and the noise startles Lee enough to jolt. 

Guy shoots him a worried glance as the call to enter comes. 

"Lady Hokage, are you available to talk right now?" Guy's voice is still low and serious, and the scene before them pauses. Tsunade, fist in Jiraiya's shirt, arm cocked to swing, releases the man. Jiraiya drops the ground like a sack of potatoes. 

Jiraiya assesses the situation and stands up slowly, solemnly, sensing the mood that settles on the room as Tsunade sits carefully behind her desk and nods at Guy and Lee. 

"Lee, go ahead. Tell her what you told me. Show her your arm." Guy doesn't need to push him forward, but Lee stumbles as if he did all the same. 

The woman that gave him his dream back and he's supposed to tell her—

"Lady Hokage, it really isn't—"

"What's wrong, Lee?" Her voice is soft and Lee is reminded for a second that she had a child that was almost hers once. 

"It's nothing—"

"Lee!" The rebuke is sharp and definitive and Lee's spine snaps straight. 

He inhales sharply and presents his left arm, carefully shifting into reporting mode. "I seem to be having problems with imagining sand grains still under my skin and Guy-sensei seems to believe that I need help." He is carefully not bitter. 

"Lee, sit down."

Lee sits. Guy stands behind the chair. 

If I run, could I make it out the door before Guy can grab me? No. Maybe the window? Still no with my weights on...

"Lee, this is nothing to be ashamed of. That is the first thing I want you to be aware of. Plenty of shinobi deal with trauma differently. You know mine." She knocks a knuckle against a mostly-empty bottle of sake sitting out on some important looking documents. "I also could not perform medical ninjutsu for years after I lost..." she blinks hard and her fingers twitch to the bottle before she seems to remember herself. 

Jiraiya cuts in smoothly, from behind Tsunade's chair, picking up the long pause. "Kid. I go to brothels daily to lose myself to physical pleasure to distract from emotional pain. You think that's healthy?"

Lee isn't sure if shaking his head would be disrespectful to the white-haired sanin. He just stares at the drying blood congealing in his scars. 

He wants to pick off the already-formed scabs and pull away the half-wet globs. 

It's disgusting. He disgusts himself. 

Guy places a gentle hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Lee."

Lady Tsunade reaches over the desk and presses two fingers to Lee's wrist and the fresh scratches close up before Lee's eyes. 

It irritates him. There won't be any scabs. 

"Let's get you to the hospital. I have a few recommendations, but in the end it's up to you."

Lee stands with her, the declination on his lips, but she cuts him off with a glare. 

"This part is not up to you. You will sit and listen to the options even if you do not choose them right now. You need to know that support is there when you decide to take care of yourself again."

Lee wilts and Guy's hand squeezes his shoulder comfortingly. 

"Please consider this seriously, Lee. I trust you to make the best choice for your health at this point. I leave you in Lady Hokage's capable hands." And with that, Guy leaves. 

Lee almost wants to call him back and ask him to sit through the meetings with him, but Guy is not his father and Lee is an adult and to ask that would be childish. 

"Do you want him to come?" Tsunade says it low, but Lee shakes his head vehemently. "It would have been okay if you did. Guy would not mind. Jiraiya and I will be coming with you, but the actual meetings will be you and the medic nin, if that is what you prefer."

"Wait, I'm comin—?" Jiraiya cuts himself off with a gulp. "Yeah, kid. We'll be there too."

Tsunade lowers her glowing fist and turns back to Lee. "Yes. Jiraiya and I will be speaking to those counselors right after you. It's about time we set an example for our village, wouldn't you agree, Jiraiya?"

Even Lee, anxious as he is, can feel the threat that hangs on Jiraiya's name. 

"Totally. I completely agree, Tsunade." Jiraiya hustles out the door first, and Tsunade allows Lee to follow before she moves to exit as well. 

Lee let's the Hokage slip past him and walk beside Jiraiya, slowing his steps more and more as they approach the hospital. 

"...if you try that one more time, I'll put you through a wall."

"Aww, Tsunade...I've had worse." The way Jiraiya says it makes Lee wince, even wrapped in his own head as he is. 

"You have thirty seconds to rejoin us before I do worse." Tsunade says casually before winding up and punching him back toward Hokage mountain. 

Lee watches one of the legendary sanin sail over Hokage Tower to land in a great cloud of dust somewhere far beyond. 

He chuckles just a little, half-heartedly. 

Jiraiya is back in twenty nine seconds exactly and Tsunade's fist is still twitching a bit. 

Lee slows a bit more. 

They're almost half a block ahead of me, Lee realizes. I could—

"So, kid. I never did hear. How'd you meet Naruto?" ...And there's Jiraiya, grinning through an impressive looking shiner. 

Luckily, that's a perfect subject for Lee. He perks up immediately. 

"Oh! I challenged Sasuke to a fight the day of the Chunin entrance exams and Naruto tried to fight me first and I knocked him out in ten seconds flat!" Lee grins and gestures freely, exposed scars forgotten. 

"Nice. He kind of sucked back before the exams. But hey, he managed to summon Gamabunta by the end of them, so... I guess I was a pretty good sensei, huh?"

Lee smiles and fights the urge to start gushing about Guy-sensei's teachings. 

"Oh you poor man!" The cry comes echoing down the hall and a young medic nin rushes to Jiraiya's side. 

Jiraiya stops and Lee realizes that not only did they make it through the hospital doors, but they're in a wing he's never been down. And he's been down almost every wing in the place. Whether he was being treated in a room, or training in the halls against his medic's orders, he'd thought that he'd seen every inch of the place. 

As the medic nin presses her chest up against Jiraiya to lean in and heal his purpled face, the older man shamelessly tucks an arm around her waist and laughs off his injury, flirting with the woman shamelessly, even as he locks eyes with the fuming Tsunade. 

"27...28...29..." she counts ominously.

"Oh! Lady Hokage!" The medic nin nods respectfully at her, hands still plastered to Jiraiya's cheek and jaw. 

Jiraiya jerks away from the confused medic nin with an awkward laugh and a quick thank you. 

Tsunade sweeps on along the hallway and the two men follow at her heels. 

They come to a stop in front of a wooden office door and Lee stares at the name plaque without seeing it. 

"Lee, this is the first..."

Tsunade is talking. The Hokage is addressing him, and all Lee can hear is buzzing. 

A doctor. Because he's sick. Mentally. There's something wrong with him. 

It just isn't sinking in right. 

Lee feels a bit dizzy. He needs to be listening. She is debriefing him. He needs to think of this as a mission. That's the only way to get through this right now. Focus. Focus or it's three thousand pushups for every second you can't. 

"...and she'll ask you some questions about how you got your injury and such as well as your coping methods before referring you to one or more medics to find what method of counseling will work best for you."

"Yes, Lady Hokage." Lee answers mechanically. 

She gives a concerned look, but let's it slide. 

Somewhere in the back of Lee's mind, he's freaking out about how freaked out he is. What is wrong with him? It's just another battle scar and it's just another story about another battle, so why is the idea of speaking about this battle and this scar scaring him so much?

Maybe...what if...Lady Tsunade...

She raps on the door. 

...decides I'm not fit for duty?

"Come in." The voice is soft and kind and against Lee's better instincts, he relaxes a bit, successfully shoving away the damning thought. 

What if I'm too damaged?

He shoves that one away too, and enters behind the two sanin. 

"Lady Hokage, what an honor!" The young shinobi rises from behind her desk. 

"Please, sit. We're her for personal reasons, not professional ones."

The young woman sits and gestures for the three of them to do the same. 

Lee realizes he had missed her name in Tsunade's briefing. His fingers twitch a bit and he digs them into his palm. It's as if the open air on his scarred skin gives him an unrealized permission to attack his own arm. 

"Thank you for seeing us on such short notice, Akina."

Oh. That's her name. 

"It was no trouble, Lady Hokage. How can I serve you three today?" Lee notices her gaze rest on him a half second longer than the other two. 

The odd one out. 

He's used to that. 

"We're here for you to give each of us recommendations. Jiraiya and I will speak with you at the same time—"

"There's no need for that." Jiraiya interjects. 

There's a pregnant pause. 

"I swear I'll take this seriously. I would just prefer to speak about this privately." Jiraiya puts his hands up placatingly and Tsunade nods reluctantly. 

"—and Lee will be speaking to you first."

"Yes, Ma'am." And Akina waits respectfully as the two sanin exit before turning her kind eyes to Lee. "How can I serve you today...Lee? Was it?"

Lee nods. "Yes, Ma'am. My name is Rock Lee and Lady Hokage required me to come her today to see my options to get help before I decided on my course of action." He slips a bit into his reporting vernacular, and notes that she notes it as well. 

"Does reporting your symptoms and situation make you feel more comfortable? Feel free to do so." She gives him a shinobi nod and he shifts a bit further into the professional comfort at the explicit permission. 

"This morning my old team accidentally found out that I've been scratching at my scars and Guy-sensei took me straight to Lady Tsunade to get help. She decided the best course of action would be to report to you to find out my options for taking care of the issue before I decide if I will accept one." Lee uncovers his half-wrapped arm as he speaks and she looks at it expressionless until he mentions the possibility of not getting help. 

If I will accept one... Guy-sensei said I need to take care of my mental health just as much as physical...

She raises an eyebrow, but does not address it right away. "Tell me about how you got this scar and what you feel when you pick."

And so Lee dissects the situation in a clinical assessment of his faults. Akina's expression does not change again, but she nods and asks follow up questions about what Lee did to reconcile the wound with his now-friend and when he was most likely to pick if there was a pattern to it and so on. 

Lee leaves the room feeling oddly light and clutching a small bumpy wood board that he can't stop running his fingers over. 

A "fidget device" is what she called it. 

Lee wants to talk to her again, but the two names she recommended are his choices. She is the head of the department, too busy for a silly chunin wrapped in his own trauma. 

He didn't bother asking. 

Jiraiya and Tsunade are bickering on the chairs down the hall when he steps out and they stop abruptly when he appears. 

"Well, kid?"

"How was it, Lee?"

For an odd moment Lee wonders if this is what it's like to have parents. 

He brushes the thought away. 

"I...enjoyed talking to Akina." He hesitates. "She gave me two other names."

"That's great, Lee!" Jiraiya stands and claps him on the back. "That means I'm up next, so I'll see you around, kid. Good luck with your other meetings!"

Lee bows stiffly to the man, who just laughs and ruffles his hair. 

"Come Lee, let's find those other offices." Lady Tsunade rises and puts a hand on Lee's shoulder to guide him further down the hall, back past the door where Master Jiraiya's low voice rumbles incomprehensible through the thick wood. 

Lee looks back, allowing himself to wish for another conversation with the kind Akina for just another moment, but refocuses on the next phase of his mission after only that one moment. 

"You know, Lee... if you decide that the next two recommendations don't suit you, I'm sure Akina will take you on as a patient. She doesn't take patients often anymore, but she does miss it." Tsunade stops them in front of the next door. 

Something apprehensive in Lee unclicks and the next two interviews pass in a blur. 

He can choose the kind woman if he needs to. He can choose her if he wants to. He doesn't need to worry so much about these two.

But they're both almost the same level of kind and calm as Akina was. Lee only discounts one because he had never seen combat and Lee doesn't really feel comfortable explaining a potential trauma that isn't automatically understood at some level. 

He feels bad, dismissing the civilian medic out of hand, but Tsunade reminds him that he is in charge of his own healing and ultimately needs to make the best choices for himself. 

When the three of them regroup in front of Akina's office once more, Tsunade's eyes are rimmed red and Jiraiya looks more somber than Lee has ever seen. 

"Come on you two, let's get back before Shizune hunts me down."

"She's probably already checking the bars." Jiraiya half-heartedly jokes. 

"Aw, shut it, Jiraiya. I'm tempted enough as is." She swings at him with equal half-heartedness and he lets her clip his shoulder. 

She then grabs his elbow and tucks herself into his side while pulling Lee into her other side. 

"I'll be expecting a report from you, Lee when we get back. Non formal." She squeezes him a bit tighter and Lee leans into it just a bit. 

It's been such a very long day and the sun is teasing right at the tree line and the stretching shadows make Lee want to yawn despite the fact that this is the least amount of training he's done in one day for months. 

They've almost made it back when a familiar green tracksuit catches the corner of Lee's eye, shifting from stationary to moving before Guy-sensei "bumps into Lee."

"Ah! My beloved ex-pupil! How was your mission? A success, I hope?"

Lee doesn't really think, just shifts from under Tsunade's arm to right under Guy's, the move pulling the older man along with them to the Hokage's office. 

Guy makes a noise of surprise before gently tucking the young man closer. 

Lee yawns. "Thank you for waiting to check up on me, sensei. I appreciate it. If you don't mind waiting just a bit longer, you can hear my report as well."

"Alight, Lee." Guy's voice is so soft and Tsunade looks so relaxed arm in arm with Jiraiya who, for once, does not seem to be trying to make an untoward advances on her. And the sun is dipping lower and the village is painted a red-gold and Lee does not feel the incessant urge to pick, rippled board in hand. 

And maybe. Maybe they can all get past this. 

Maybe they can heal.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think! It’s a bit soft and a bit open-ended and who knows, I might add to this on another bad day for me haha!
> 
> It would help a lot if any of you could tell me if you relate to any of these issues. It feels very stigmatized in our society and I feel very ashamed about my own issues, but hearing others talk about it helps me. So...I hope this helps some of you.
> 
> Much love,
> 
> :D  
> ~EthEl


End file.
